My Loving Family Paid to Destroy Me novel · Chapter 22 of 24

Chapter 22: Laurel's POV: Free

Laurel's POV

He asked me in the courthouse stairwell, where the cameras couldn't follow.

"Why?"

He stood two steps below me, so that our eyes were level.

His hands were open at his sides.

"Because your father needed a villain," I said. "And I handed him one."

"Laurel."

"He needed you to sign, and he needed the world to look at me. If I confessed, the story was finished. He'd think he had won."

"And that kept him from killing me?"

"It kept him from hurrying."

I watched it go through him.

"The hearing was nine days out," I said. "After that, Hank's men would sell you to him. So I mailed the page, I walked into that barn with the police, and I let you hate me in front of every camera in the state."

"You planned to go to prison."

"For as long as it took."

"You didn't tell me."

"You'd have told him."

He closed his eyes.

"Yes," he said. "I would have."

I was too tired to be angry.

I took his lapel in my fist and held on for a second, and then I let go, because my hand was shaking.

"I want to go home now," I said.

"Mine or yours?"

"Mine."

He took that without a word.

That was the first thing he got right.

I rode the bus.

I wanted the cold window and the stranger's elbow in my ribs.

I wanted to be a person with a ticket stub and nowhere to be.

At the studio, I turned the key and stood in the doorway for a long time.

← Chapter 21 · All chapters · Chapter 23 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend